Northwest Aquatic
League

The
Northwest Aquatic League, or NWAL, has become one of the 3 largest
summer league programs in the nation with as many as 101 teams and
over 15,000 swimmers from ages 4 to 18. The core area of the league is located
in the northwest Harris County form Cypress to Humble but stretch
as far west as Giddings, north to Bryan
and Huntsville, and
east to Crosby.

The NWAL season begins in early May and
runs till the end of June.
The teams are divided into 5 and 6 team divisons spread out over 4
regions. Some teams have as many as 350 swimmers while others
only have 45 to 50 swimmers. Each
team in a division competes in a dual meet with each of the other
teams. The season concludes with a divisional meet with all
the teams. During the season and following divisionals,
several invitational meets are scheduled.

HIstory

In 1970, Shell Oil
transferred many families from California to the Houston
area. These families settled in the northwest part of Houston
and wanted to continue the swimming experiences they had begun in
California. So five fathers, employees of Shell Oil, got
together and established theNORTHWEST AQUATIC LEAGUE. The first five
teams in the league that year were Forest Oaks, River Plantation,
Northampton, Ponderosa Forest, and Westador. Governing rules
were based on those that had been used in Menlo,
California.

In the early days, the
division line-ups were determined by a committee of five who would
place teams according to what that committee believed to be the
size and strength of each team. In 1985, Pete Junkins
developed what was called the ‘power-rating’
formula. Team size, meet scores and season record were taken
into account mathematically. As the league becaome ore
computerized in the early 2000's, team management software has been
used to create a Super Meet or Big Meet that uses the previous
year's divisional meet data to score a mock meet with aged up
swimmers in each a region.

Parent volunteers have been and
continue to be the key to the success of NWAL over the past 40+
years. In most cases, the coaches are paid but there are
cases in which the coaches are also volunteers. Each division
elects a representative who sits on the Board of Directors.
The Executive Board consists of a President, Vice-president of
Training & Certification, Vice-president of Software, Secretary
and a Treasurer. The Board meets four times a year to set the
guidelines for the season. These meetings are open to any
interested party, although, only the division reps and executive
board members can vote. Each team is then represented at the
annual meeting held in January. The major purpose of this
meeting is to disseminate all of the information for the coming
season.